Mar 19, 2023
The Devil's Men (Land of the Minotaur, 1976)
"I'm worried, what's happened to Tom?"
"I think he... I think he's being held... captive."
"Captive?"
"By Satan. Mephistopheles, Lucifer; these are just three words for the same thing. A phenomenon that's older than mankind, a power without a face, a force that can make people do whatever it wants them to do. The devil, yes! Yes, Laurie! The devil. I believe the devil has taken possession of this village."
#the devil's men#land of the minotaur#horror film#greek cinema#british cinema#1976#kostas karagiannis#arthur rowe#donald pleasence#peter cushing#luan peters#kostas karagiorgis#dimitris bislanis#anna matzourani#nikos verlekis#vanna reville#bob behling#anestis vlahos#george veulis#jane lyle#jessica dublin#brian eno#kind of disappointing euro horror which doesn't do enough to take advantage of the double casting coup of Cushing and Pleasence#disjointed and badly cobbled together in places‚ plus badly dubbed throughout (much of the supporting cast is Greek) this at least#has a fascinatingly discordant Brian Eno score and a killer end titles song from mini maestro Paul Williams. Cushing is particularly under#used‚ just popping in now and again to look menacing‚ while the ever mercurial Pleasence is clearly in his mucking about and having fun#mode of work (a prevailing mood among his 70s genre work‚ except perhaps for his dour work on Halloween). the actual finále is#spectacular‚ an over the top masterpiece of satanic nonsense‚ and if the film had only had more of that energy throughout it would have#stood as a campy cheesy classic of a sub sub genre; alas there's too much slogging around and too much time spent with a barely likeable#heroic lead and not enough of Don P muttering about devils and the youth of today (and how the youth of today aren't wary enough of devils)
